NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NASCAR, BCS have all won in South Florida

By Wayne K. Roustan and Chris Perkins

Nov 05, 2015 | 8:11 AM

From Super Bowls to Stanley Cups to World Series to NBA titles to college bowls, there are few places in the country where a more diverse collection of championships have been won than in the Sunshine State.

If you want to celebrate a sports championship you've come to the right place.

For more than 50 years South Florida has seen more titles than most American cities and it's not just the home teams that are collecting trophies and rings.

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Visiting teams come here to win too and we get to watch from the sidelines.

Everything from Super Bowls to Stanley Cups have been hosted here.

"There is nothing better," said Jeff Conine, two-time World Series champion with the Florida Marlins.

"We had a great bunch of guys," said Bill Lindsay, of the 1996 Stanley Cup finalist Florida Panthers.

"You have to have stars who can will your team to a victory but you also need a team," said Chris Bosh, two-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat.

"And a lot of heart, because if you don't have the heart you can't play," added his wife Marsha.

Some might say we've been spoiled.

We've had Orange Bowls and BCS title games.

We've hosted ten Super Bowls with a record 11th coming in 2020.

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We've been home to the NASCAR championship race for years.

We hosted an historic heavyweight boxing title match between then-Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston.

We had a Stanley Cup championship celebrated in Miami and we haven't even talked about our home teams yet.

It all started in 1972 with the Miami Dolphins' Perfect Season. They never lost a game that year and won Super Bowl VII and then Super Bowl VIII.

They literally wrote the book on winning but they would learn it was a tough act to follow.

A few NFL teams came close but none has done what the Dolphins did.

Howard Schnellenberger was an assistant coach on the undefeated Dolphins team and he would later coach the University of Miami Hurricanes to an upset 31-30 win over Nebraska in the 1984 Orange Bowl to claim the national championship.

It would be the first of four titles and seven championship bowl game appearances in the 1980s and early 90s.

The baseball Hurricanes would win a college World Series in 2001.

It would take just four years for the expansion Florida Marlins to win the first of their two World Series.

Jeff Conine played on both those championship teams and became a Marlins broadcaster.

"It is a team sport so a championship team, for me, for 1997 and 2003, we played together like a family," he said.

Veteran Florida Panthers broadcaster Denis Potvin also knows a thing or two about what it takes to be a champion.

He captained the New York Islanders to four straight Stanley Cups.

"In team sports, team really does come first," he said. "When we started winning Stanley Cups in 1980, it was very much an effort from everybody who laced up the skates."

If there's a recipe for success, the ingrediants might include luck, health, skill, talent, work ethic, and chemistry.

"It's all that," said Dwyane Wade, three-time NBA champion while with the Miami Heat."

"When it comes to being a champion everything has to align right for you," he said.

Of course, South Florida does not have a monopoly on championships.

The University of Florida Gators football team, basketball team, gymnastics team and a few others have championships.

Florida State University has a couple of football championships.

In Tampa, the Buccaneers have an NFL Super Bowl victory under their belt and the NHL's Lightning have won a Stanley Cup.

So what role do the fans play in making a championship team?

"They always support their players," said Miami Dolfan Rob Tabatchnick. "They cheer for them through victory and loss."

History is boring. Dubious History is not. That's why veteran reporter Wayne Roustan searches South Florida for the strangest, weirdest, most offbeat and twisted tales from the past.Haunted theaters? Cartoon construction? Invading aliens? Missing fingers? Cheapskate terrorists? Beatle bedrooms?Moon tickets? Time tunnels? South Florida has it all and much more. It may sound dubious but that's the point!Come along. You may learn something no one else knows.